


Happy Birthday!

by StormsThing1



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Transcendence (Gravity Falls), Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 10:53:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12703557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormsThing1/pseuds/StormsThing1
Summary: "Hey, Toby? Does Daddy have a birthday?""Well, of course he does, Madds. Everyone has a birthday.""Then why don't we celebrate it?"Toby had never thought of it that way.





	Happy Birthday!

“Hey, Toby?” Maddie asked, sprawled out on the couch, her crown that declared her the eight-year-old princess disheveled on her head.

“Yeah, Madds?” Toby said from the kitchen, scrubbing sparkly pink aftermath of a little girl birthday party off the counter.

“Does Daddy have a birthday?”

Toby hesitated for just a moment. “Of course he does. Everyone has a birthday.”

“Then why don't we ever celebrate it?” she sat up and looked over the couch at her brother. Toby was cleaning up an apparent color bomb that had gone off during Maddie's birthday, and their dad had to leave on a 'work related emergency' just a few minutes earlier.

“Well,” Toby put down his towel. “I've never thought of that, actually.” he rested his chin in his hand.”We've just never really celebrated it I guess.” he shrugged and went back to cleaning off the counter.

“Well that's not nice!” Maddie stood up on the couch, her pink and gold Princess Mizar dress fluttering around her knees. “Daddy always celebrates our birthdays, so we need to celebrate his too! It's not nice to ignore his birthday!”

“Okay.” Toby swiped the rag along the last stretch of dirty counter, then threw it in the wash cube. “What's your idea for fixing this?” he asked and joined Maddie on the couch.

“We need to have a birthday party for Daddy!” she declared, sitting back down and settling into her brother's side. “With cake and decorations and presents and we can decorate Daddy's friends to come too!”

“I think he'd like that.” Toby agreed, mulling over the thought and also wondering if Alcor had any friends. It was a nice idea.

There was a moment of silence that was quickly filled with Maddie describing the ideal party, with big sweeps of her arms as she described where everything would go, and how big the cake would be to make up for all the birthdays of the past.

“I'm gonna need you to help me knit something, Toby.” she said eventually with a small nod, as if she was convincing herself that was what she wanted to say.

“Sure thing, what do you wanna make?”

“Well, I want to make him a sweater.” Maddie muttered. “But maybe I should just make a blanket or a scarf, I don't think I'm good enough for a sweater. But Daddy likes them a lot.”

“Well, I think you should go for the sweater.” Toby said. “Dad will love it.”

“Okay.” Maddie agreed. 

Then the front door opened and in came her dad, and she squealed and hugged him.

 

They had been standing in the yarn aisle of the Craft Barn for about half an hour. Maddie was sitting criss-cross on the floor, three skeins of slightly different blue yarn spread in front of her. She had black and yellow skeins sitting in her lap, colors she had already picked out. There was one more yellow spool and three more black spools in the cart.

“Which one do you think, Toby?” she asked, leaning back on her hands and stretching her head to look at him upside down.

“Well, I personally like the lightest one better.” Toby began, pointing as he went. “But I think the darkest one is the closest to the shirts he wears.”

“And my favorite one is the middle one.” Maddie pouted, and leaned her weight on her brother's legs.

Really, the colors were all very similar, and some could consider them interchangeable, but not color guru Maddie. She needed it to be absolutely perfect, and anything less than perfection was failure.

A few more minutes were spent humming and hawing over colors, Maddie's hand hovering over one then the other, then the other, before returning to her chin.

“This one.” she said, placing her hand on the middle color. “Well, actually.” she trailed off, pulling her and back in. The old ladies who worked at the store were cooing at her.

Then she returned to glaring the colors into submission. Toby had to pull the cart out of the way of a half annoyed half amused looking grandmother.

“This one.” Maddie spoke up, holding the darkest color over her head. “Quick, Toby, take it from me before I change my mind.”

“Okay.” Toby grabbed the color out of her hand and plopped it in the cart while she placed the other two colors back on the shelf, and then grabbed a few more spools of the selected color. He helped Maddie off the floor, and started walking, only to stop at the end of the aisle.

“Hey Maddie, do you want anymore needles?” he looked at the impressive wall of knitting goodies.

“Oh, yeah!” she popped over to the wall, and grabbed a variety pack of needles, plopping them loudly into the cart, which shuddered slightly under Toby's hand.

“Wow.” said the woman at the cashier as Toby pushed the cart into the aisle. “You working on a project?”

“Yeah-huh!” Maddie replied. “Our daddy's birthday is coming up! I'm gonna make him a sweater!”

The woman smiled, “I'm sure he'll love it.” and she began to scan the yarn.

Toby dropped Maddie off at her house on his way home, the huge pile of yarn sitting in the trunk. He was going to hide it in his apartment for Maddie to work on later.

“How was the movie?”Alcor asked as Maddie slid her light-up sneakers off at the door.

“It was great!” Maddie said, going along with the story that she and Toby had gone to the movies. She hopped on the couch next to her dad.

“Why didn't Toby come in with you?” he asked, leaning around Maddie to look at the closed door.

“He said he had buttloads of homework to do.” Maddie recited.

“Hm.” he nodded, then smiled. “Did you know a buttload is actually an archaic unit of measurement?”

“Really?” Maddie said, giggling.

“Yep, it's the same as 126 gallons.”

Maddie doubled over laughing. “Imagine Toby, with that much homework sitting on his desk! It'd cover the whole floor!”

“Well, a gallon is a measurement of liquid, and not solids, which paper is, but that would be a ton of anything.” her dad agreed, laughing along. 

“It would be ridiculous!”

 

“Hey, Toby?” Maddie said, leaning her head on her brother's quilted bed spread. “Could you start me off?” she held up a spool of pink yarn and a pair of shiny needles for him.

“Sure thing.” Toby said, taking both from her hands. “Now watch so you can figure it out on your own.” he sat criss-crossed and leaned down so Maddie could see his hands better.

“Right.” she agreed and stood on her knees, leaning over his hands with all the seriousness of an eight-year-old wearing a tutu.

So he slowly started maneuvering the thread into the needles, narrating what he was doing as he went along, Maddie occasionally asking questions.

“I can take over now.” Maddie said as he finished off the second row of stitches, making grabby hands for the needles.

“Okay.” he relinquished the beginning of yet another heat pad.

Maddie was curled up on a beanbag chair leaned up against Toby's bed, needles gently clicking as she talked and Toby did his homework on his bed, sometimes putting his things up in order to check on Maddie's progress or help her out of a tough spot. A marathon of the Princess Mizar TV show softly played in the background.

“Okay Toby, I think I'm ready to tie this one off!” she held up her square to him, and he took it from her, turning it over in his hands and nodding.

“This looks really good.” he said. “You dropped a few stitches here and there, but nothing major and it looks lovely.”

“Thanks!” she beamed, blushing at all the compliments.

“Okay, now watch how I tie this off.” he leaned over and Maddie propped up on her knees to get a better look.

When he was done she hopped onto his bed and gave him a monster hug. “Thanks Toby!”

“No problem.” he smiled, patting her on the back. He glanced down at his watch and frowned, this had gone much longer than he'd anticipated. “Now you should probably go home before Dad burns down the whole town looking for you.”

“Daddy wouldn't do that.” Maddie scolded, grin on her face and finger wiggling back and forth. “Bye Toby!” She scooped up her bag and slipped on her light-up sneakers and bounced down the hall to the elevators.

“Later Madds.”

At home she worked with whatever random yarn she found, making short scarfs and heat pads, which were left scattered around her room at random. She visited Toby's apartment as often as she could to make more practice pads, and even start on the sweater, but she practiced a lot at home too. She was going to make this the best birthday ever.

“Hey, Toby?” she asked once, working black yarn between her needles.

“Yeah Madds?” Toby asked as he put a box around his answer and swiped to the next question on his tablet.

“When is Daddy's birthday anyways?”

“I- uh.” Toby sat in silence for a moment. “I don't know actually. I'll ask him next time we talk.”

“No Toby!” she shrieked, “That would ruin the surprise!” she poked him in the knee with her silvery needle.

“Then how will we know when to celebrate?” Toby asked her.

“We can make up a day to celebrate on!” Maddie smiled. “Like how sometimes Daddy has us celebrate our birthdays on weekends whenever our birthday is during the week! It doesn't matter when the birthday is celebrated, just so long as it get celebrated.”

“Well I can't argue with that.” Toby nodded with a big smile. “The sweater's coming a long real nice.” he added, looking at the progress.

“Thanks! I think so too!” Maddie beamed and held up her work to the light, admiring it.

 

They decided that they were going to end summer with a bang, and hold their dad's birthday party on the last day before Maddie's school started up again. Toby woke up before dawn that day to sneak into his childhood home, dropping his backpack by the door.

Maddie was technically waiting for him. She was sprawled out on the couch, thumb in her mouth as she slept. The tele had switched to sleep mode, the light of the screen dimmed and the volume turned low.

“Hey, Maddie.” he whispered, gently tapping his sister's shoulder. “Maddie wake up.”

“Shush Toby.” she muttered. “Sleepy time.”

“But Maddie.” he kept shaking her shoulder. “We're celebrating Dad's birthday today.”

“Oh, right.” she whispered and sat up, suddenly awake. “Let's make a cake.”

“For breakfast?” Toby asked, smiling.

“It's a special day, we have to celebrate it with cake for breakfast.” Maddie nodded, completely firm in her logic. She fastened her blanket around her shoulders like a cape.

“Okay.” Toby laughed. “You go into the kitchen and start getting out bowls and stuff, I'm gonna check the thermo, it's freezing in here.” he walked into the hallway, sliding his finger on the thermo screen. “Hey, Madds? Why's it set to fifty-eight?”

“I was to cold to sleep.”

“I see.” he spun the dial up to seventy, and heard the heater roar to life.

“Thanks.” Maddie said.

Toby walked into the kitchen, and nearly had a heart attack as Maddie was 'taking care to herself' by climbing the counter tops in her fuzzy socks.

“Whoa, Madds.” he said, rushing to her and grabbing her around the waist. “What're you trying to get?”

“Sprinkles.” she said innocently.

“Maddie, we don't need sprinkles until we're decorating the cake.”

“No, we need them now! I wanna mix sprinkles into the batter!” she stood on her tiptoes to reach into the back of the cabinet. “Got them!” she smiled, and Toby picked her up off the counter and put her back on the ground.

“That was fun.” Maddie giggled.

“I thought you were gonna slip and crack your head open.” Toby responded. “Okay, can you get eggs and milk out of the fridge?”

“Yup!” Maddie ran to the corner of the kitchen, pulling out the milk and putting it on the counter, then opening the carton of eggs. “How many?”

“Um,” Toby looked at the back of the cake mix. “Three eggs.”

“Okay!” she took out the eggs, and brought them to the counter where all the materials were set up. “Here you go Toby!”

“I think that's everything.” Toby said, looking at the bowl, cake pan and non-stick cooking spray Maddie had already pulled out. “So what's the first thing we do when cooking?” he asked her.

“First we preheat the cooker.” Maddie said.

“Yup.” Toby agreed, and walked to the cooker. “What's the box say to heat it to?”

“Three-fifty degrees.”

“Three-fifty.” Toby repeated as he slid the slider on the cooker, Maddie leaning over his shoulder to make sure he got it right. “Now to the sink.”

“To the sink!” Maddie repeated, rushing past him to wash her hands. “And now to the fun part.” she smiled once she'd rinsed her hands off. She ripped open the cardboard box and took out the bag of powder.

She held out the bag to Toby, who took a pair of scissors to slice off the top, then Maddie dumped it all into the bowl. She took a whisk off the counter and mixed the powder around a few times for good good measure.

“And now one cup of milk.” Toby read off the box. 

“Oh, can I pour it, Toby? Promise I won't spill!” Maddie grabbed the milk and the measuring cup.

“Sure thing, just let me hold the cup.” Toby said, taking the measuring cup from Maddie and holding over the bowl. Maddie hopped up onto her stool and very carefully tipped the milk bag over, making sure it all got it the cup.

“Good job.” Toby turned the cup over, and Maddie mixed in the milk.

Both of them cracked the eggs into the bowl, and made sure not to get any shell in the mixture, then Toby left Maddie to stir the batter while he coated the cook pan in non-stick spray.

“And the most important part.” Maddie sang to herself as she poured in a generous amount of rainbow sprinkles.

Then Toby poured the batter in the pan, let Maddie give it another batch of sprinkles, and put the pan in the cooker for fifteen minutes.

“Okay, so I have a party pack of streamers in my bag, how about you get started putting those up while I clean up in here?” Toby suggested, setting the bowl in the sink and filling it with water.

“Okay!” Maddie cheered, and ran to the door.

Toby grabbed a rag and began to wipe up the dust and sprinkles and dust that had managed to get all over the counter, scraping the bigger chunks into his hand. He threw the box in the trash, and put the milk back in the fridge, but left out the sprinkles.

“Hey, Toby?” Maddie popped her head into the kitchen. “What should I do with your present?” she held out a wrapped cube.

“Oh, just put that by the fireplace.” he said, waving his hand in the general direction, before tossing his rag in the washer.

“Okay.” Maddie ran off.

Toby rinsed off all the dishes and threw them in the washer along with the rag, then he closed the lid and heard the gentle humming start.

Toby joined Maddie outside in taping up streamers around the family room, then left to get the cake when the timer went off, setting it down on a heat pad to cool.

“Let's let it cool for about five minutes before decorating it, don't want the frosting to melt.” he said to Maddie who had come to see the cake.

“It smells really good.” she commented.

“Yeah, you did a good job making it.” Toby said, patting her head. “You should probably go grab your gift now.” 

“Right.” she said, and ran up the stairs to her room. She came back down a few minutes later with a sparkly gift bag in hand, and she went to the fireplace to put it down next to Toby's gift, then she went back to taping up streamers.

“Hey, Madds, the cake's probably done cooling by now if you wanna go decorate it, I'm gonna stay out here and keep putting up streamers.” He said.

“Okay!” Maddie said and ran into the kitchen, and Toby kept with the streamers, going back to his bag a couple of times to get another roll to add. Right as he was finishing up Maddie came back into the family room.

“I'm done with the cake, wanna see?”

“Of course Madds.” Toby slid the last roll into his bag and followed Maddie into the kitchen.

She had covered the cake in chocolate icing, and rainbow sprinkles. In pink icing on top of the sprinkles it said 'Happy Birthday Daddy' and all around the words were a ton of birthday candles. “I wasn't sure how old he is so I just added a ton of candles.”

“It looks good Madds.” Toby said, moving the cake onto the kitchen table. “Wanna go wake up Dad now?”

“Yeah!” Maddie cheered.

They crept down the hall to the master bedroom quietly, Maddie holding up her arms like a TV show spy. The stopped just outside the door, and Toby held up a hand and counted down on his fingers. 3, 2, 1.

Maddie slammed open the door and charged at the bed, while Toby flicked on the lights.

“Happy birthday Daddy!” Maddie cheered as she bounced on her dad's bed.

“Huh what?” Alcor muttered, sitting up and pulling off his sleep mask.

“Well, I realized that we never celebrate your birthday! So me and Toby decided to celebrate it today!” Maddie explained, then hugged him. “Happy birthday!”

“Thanks.” he said, hugging her back.

“So, you wanna do cake or presents first?” Maddie asked.

“What if I wanna go to sleep?” he asked, joking. “It is awful early.”

“No!” Maddie crossed her arms. “Sleep wasn't an option!”

“Let's do presents, it's to early for food.” Toby suggested.

“I like that idea.” Alcor agreed.

“Okay! Let's go let's go!” she grabbed him by the hand and started dragging him to the family room and pushing him onto the couch.

“Wow.” he commented, looking around the room. “How long have you two been planning this?”

“About a month and a half.” said Toby, leaning against the armrest of the couch.

“Thanks.” Alcor said, putting a hand on Toby's shoulder.

“It's nothing.”

“Presents!” called Maddie, carrying the cube and bag over.

“I'll take this one first.” Alcor said, and took the cube from her.

“That's mine.” Toby commented as he pulled at the paper.

It was a shiny silver cube, not to much special about it, with a jack in the back and a light on the top. “It's a picture cube.” he added, tapping a button on the top next to the light. The light turned on, and a hologram began above it, pictures of him and Maddie when they were little, along with more recent pictures.

“Thanks.” Alcor said, looking at the pictures intensely and pulling Toby into a hug.

“It's nothing.” Toby said, blushing.

“No, it's amazing.”

“And here's my present!” Maddie said, holding out the gift bag.

Alcor took it, and gingerly pulled out the rainbow tissue paper, then pulled out the gift.

Maddie wound up making a really good sweater, with a pretty difficult design on it to. It was all black, with a dark blue forest and yellow stars on it. Alcor just stared at it for a few moments.

“Do you like it?” Maddie asked, wringing her hands together.

Alcor didn't answer her, just pulled her in for a huge hug.

“Daddy, why are you crying?”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this like a long time ago and finally got around to posting it here. enjoy!


End file.
